Borderlands 3 release times announced, including PC preload

09/03/2019

It’s getting more and more complicated to figure out when you can actually play a new game. But for the upcoming release of Borderlands 3, Gearbox seems to be keeping things simple by launching the game at midnight on Sept. 13 for (almost) every time zone, unless you’re on Windows PC. Players will also be able to preload the game two days ahead.

On consoles, the release date for Borderlands 3 is Sept. 13, and for most players that means they’ll be able to play it starting at midnight in their time zone on that day. The one exception to this seems to be North America, where the game launches at midnight Eastern time across the entire region. That means the game will be available Sept. 12 at 9 p.m. PDT for people on the West Coast.

As for PC players, the situation is a little bit different. Instead of a staggered rollout, the launch is based on British Summer Time. The game will be released in the U.K. at midnight on Sept. 13 — or 12:01 a.m., technically. For PC players in North America, that means the West Coast will get the game at 4 p.m. PDT on Sept. 12, which is 7 p.m. EDT.

No matter which platform you’re planning to play Borderlands 3 on, you’ll be able to preload the game 48 hours before the release date. This is good news, considering that Epic Games chief Tim Sweeney said three weeks ago that the Epic Games Store — where the PC version will be available exclusively for six months — wouldn’t support preloading Borderlands 3. PC players should be able to preload around 7 p.m. EDT on Sept. 10, while console players should be able to start downloading the game a few hours later, at midnight on Sept. 11.

For a more detailed breakdown of Borderlands 3’s release schedule by time zones, you can see several below.